Updated Nutrition Standards for School Meals Associated With Improved Weight Outcomes for Boys in Elementary School

Autor: Sharon D. Kim, Tracy Vericker, Maeve E. Gearing
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of school healthREFERENCES. 89(11)
ISSN: 1746-1561
Popis: Background In response to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the US Department Agriculture updated the nutrition standards for school meals to improve nutrition-related health outcomes for children. This study assesses the association between implementation of the updated nutrition standards and child weight. Methods A quasi-experimental design and multivariate regression analysis is used to compare longitudinal changes in BMI z-scores for school lunch participants and nonparticipants across 2 nationally representative third grade cohorts of children-those exposed to the updated standards (N = 5480) and those not exposed (N = 9240). Results Boys who ate school lunches after implementation of the updated standards experienced slower BMI z-score growth than did nonparticipants; participants' BMI z-scores increased by 0.10 compared with 0.18 for nonparticipants. We find no relationship between school lunch participation and BMI z-scores for girls. Conclusions This study provides evidence that the updated nutrition standards for school meals are associated with improved weight outcome for boys, but have no effect for girls, 1 year after implementation. These findings are encouraging and provide support for continued focus on improving the nutritional quality of school meals.
Databáze: OpenAIRE